The Betrayal – A Canadian in Portugal

In June 2025, the current “minority” government bowing to pressure from Chega, introduced new Citizenship laws. In short the Nationality Draft Law 20/XVII/1 and Draft Law 23/XVII/1 are as follows:

Residence Periods for citizenship doubled retroactively
For Canadians who have already moved here and are close to recieving EU citizenship, the goalpost has suddenly moved from 5 years to 10 years.
End to birthright citizenship
For Canadians who have been living here legally for years, their children are no longer automatically granted Portuguese citizenship if born here.
Cultural “Integration” requirements
Portugal previously only required level “A2” knowledge of the language. This level may be raised arbitrarily, and the government will introduce tests of the awareness of Portuguese culture and the functioning of the Portuguese Republic.
Declaration of Commitment
Applicants will now have to sign a “solemn declaration of adherence to the principles of the democratic rule of law”
Stricter Criminal Record Checks
It is undefined how tight these checks will be, but under current law, only a prison sentence of over 3 years would disqualify you. Now it could be anything.
Requiring language proficiency tests for renewal some types of Resident Permits
Currently one only needs to have “A2” level Portuguese for citizenship. The new laws will apply language tests to renew some types of Resident Permits
Suspension of family reunification requests
This makes it harder for families to move to Portugal together
Removal of time spent illegally in the country for citizenship
I am not sure how they will define time spent “illegally” but considering the extreme slowness of the process of getting a Resident Card or renewing a resident card, I feel like this could easily apply to anyone who is here following the rules.

This law is retroactive

This law is retroactive and applies to anyone who moved here in the past 5 years and thought that they would soon be eligible for EU citizenship.

This is a betrayal of anyone who chose Portugal over the many other options in the EU and the world, and has already invested significant time, energy and money in relocating and building a new life here. For someone who has chosen Portugal over another country like Germany or France, this law is punitive. For example, for someone who has already spent 3 years in Portugal and was expecting to be an EU citizen after another two years, the wait will now be 7 years. If one were to flush the investment of 3 years and start over in Germany or France today, they could be an EU citizen two years faster, and return to Portugal if they wished with the full rights afforded to a citizen of any EU country.

This law is actively destroying the good will of legal immigrants

I am devastated. We were 3 months away from the 5 year goal to apply for citizenship. We have been studying Portuguese religiously the entire time and are set to take the CIPLE test soon. We could have taken the useless government certificate classes where people learn next to nothing, but we really wanted to know Portuguese. We reach out and have actively cultivated relationships with our Portuguese neighbors who delight in helping us to learn the language. This change does feel like a betrayal and it isolates us from the very community we’ve been proud to call home. Sure, they want our money, but they spit in our faces at the same time. I’m heartbroken and disgusted.

Catherine Hunt – https://www.inlis.pt/post/portugal-new-10-year-citizenship-law-approved

Renewing Temporary Residencies is burdensome.

Because Portugal is granting only Temporary Residencies to Canadians, the Residency permits must be renewed every 2-3 years. This renewal process is completely broken. For example, from the moment I began the process of moving to Portugal by attempting to get the appropriate documentation, opening a bank account, renting an apartment in Portugal from Canada as required by the application, waiting for an appointment to open up at Portugal’s Canadian consulate, and finally getting approved, it took a full year. This means I paid exorbitant rents on an apartment I could not use for half a year.

Then when I arrived, there was a further 5 month wait for an appointment to get my 2 year Resident Card, and another 5 month wait for the Resident Card to arrive. It never arrived, so I had to force my way into an office to find out what happened.

If your card does not arrive, as happened with myself and with many others, there is no visibility into the process. There is no way to check the status of your application online, the agency that handles these cards does not answer emails and does not pick up the phone. To make things worse, there are police officers stationed at the entrance to the appointment offices that will not let you enter without an appointment. If your card does not arrive, you have no recourse other than to plead with a police officer to let you in to the building. At the 5 month mark, on my 7th try, I was able to convince the police to let me enter the building by breaking down in tears. During the time that you do not have a Resident Card, any shipment of personal items from Canada will not be able to clear customs, you have no proper identification other than your passport to perform any public or private function like talking to a bank, and you are blocked from applying for a health number or attempting to change your driver’s license.

Therefore, the first 10 months I was living in Portugal do not count towards my residency, nor was I able to leave and re-enter the EU without a valid Resident Card. This situation is egregious for professionals like myself who are required to travel for work or for individuals who may have to leave the EU for family or personal reasons.

Each time the Resident Card expires every two or three years, the process must be repeated. The process as I understand it is currently that after your card has expired, in a period of 3-6 months, you may receive an email or a phone call offering you to renew on a website that is horribly broken, or you will be given a time slot and random location for an in-person interview. The documentation that you must provide is also poorly defined, and in my experience, seems to be at the discretion of the interviewer. After the interview or document upload on the website, a card may or may not be mailed out to you. If the card does not arrive, it will be nearly impossible to take action.

The inefficiencies of the Resident Card renewal process make living here without citizenship for a decade almost impossible, as there will be long stretches of time where you are unable to leave and re-enter the EU.

Finally, it takes the government 1-2 years minimum to approve a citizenship application, during which time you also cannot leave the country. So between the difficulty in getting a Resident Card, and the difficulty in getting citizenship once you apply, the real timelines for citizenship is more like 12 to 13 years.

The residency period requirement is highly restrictive compared with other EU countries

Here is a list of EU countries that have 5 year residency requirements for EU citizenship, and that allow dual passports:

Belgium
Bulgaria
Finland
France
Germany
Hungary
Ireland
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Sweden
UK (not technically EU since Brexit)

Many countries have been attempting to make their immigration policies more open to attract immigrants while Portugal is moving in a more anti-immigrant fashion. Some examples:

Spain will grant citizenship to holders of passports from most latin-american countries after only 2 years of residency.

France has a digital nomad visa called professsion libéral. France only requires B1 french, which should be trivial for any bilingual Canadian like myself
And for “exceptionally integrated”, they will give you citizenship in 2 years.

Malta will fast track citizenship to as fast as 1 year for immigrants who can pay, but the price is very high, about $1,000,000 Canadian

Germany has completely revamped it’s immigration laws in order to attract immigrants, dropping it’s residency requirement from 8 years to 5 years, and as low as 3 years for highly integrated individuals who can speak german at a C1 level and have taken an integration course. Germany will also issue you an EU blue card in many cases allowing you to live and work anywhere in 29 EU Schengen countries, whereas Portugal’s Temporary Residency only allows you to live and work in Portugal. There are especially relaxed requirements for IT workers. They have launched a new “Make it in Germany” website to help attract immigrants.

Hungary Even Hungary under the notoriously anti-immigrant Victor Orban will allow for citizenship via naturalization after 5 years.

This makes Portugal’s new laws amongst the strictest in Europe. There is no country with longer wait times for citizenship than Portugal under these new laws. What makes it a betrayal is that anyone who made the mistake of choosing Portugal over one of these other countries in the past 5 years is now has a longer wait than if they had chosen to move to any of the other countries listed above. It makes sense for us to move elsewhere and start over. The exodus has already begun.

In a private conversation with the author of the leading sites for information for Canadians moving to Portugal, the author responded with the following:

“Most people can’t move to France or Germany. If they could, they would already choose it over Portugal.”

“I completely agree with you: the whole situation really is a mess, and the uncertainty around it is exhausting. The shifting rules, the bureaucracy, and the general lack of clarity make it hard to feel confident about long-term planning. I’m definitely hoping things get watered down or at least clarified soon.”

I asked if I could quote the author directly, but he declined, because he is taking money from immigrants to provide relocation services.

Portugal should treat Canadian immigrants as well as Canada treats Portuguese immigrants

Portugal’s population has finally stabilized at around 10 million due to efforts to balance emigration and immigration. High immigration is needed to offset losses due to emigration of Portuguse talent to other countries. Canada has been a huge recipient of Portuguese immigation, and has managed to attract 166,000 immigrants from Portugal, putting us as the 5th most popular destination for Portuguese people. This is no easy feat, as Portuguese do not need to apply for a visa to move permanently to France or Germany, we don’t share a common language like Brazil, and Canadian salaries are lower than USA or Switzerland. Canada has worked hard to attract immigrants and it’s success is proven in these numbers:

France: 600,000 emigrants
Switzerland: 265,000 emigrants
USA: 200,000 emigrants
Brazil: 189,000 emigrants
Canada: 166,000 emigrants
Germany: 138,000 emigrants

Not only has Canada has accepted 166,000 immigrants from Portugal, but in our last census, 448,310 Canadian citizens identify as Portuguese, despite being second or third generation Canadians. There are entire neighbourhoods in Canadian cities where Portuguese immigrants are dominant, and where English or French is not always spoken. Canadians view immigration as a point of pride, and we are happy when immigrants choose Canada over other countries. We understand that immigrants have choices on where to move and when they choose Canada, their international perspective and different cultures contribute greatly to Canadian culture and society. To quote my member of parliament for many years in Vancouver Centre, “Canada’s diversity is its greatest competitive advantage – our weapon of mass inclusion.”

Portugal is not nearly as welcoming as Canada. Immigrants are regularly scapegoats for many of the failures of the Portugal’s problems, including the housing crisis and cost of living crisis. The current opposition party, Chega, likens immigration to an “invasion”. But let’s look at the numbers. As of 2022, there are just over 10,000 Americans living in Portugal. For Canadians, the last official number was taken in 2018 by the now disbanded SEF, but at the time, the total number of Canadians residing in the entire country was 882. How can 10,000 Americans and 882 Canadians be responsible for affecting the rents in a country of 10 million people who’s population is not growing?

Portuguese citizens moving to Canada under the Express Entry or Provincial Nominee Program are granted immediate permanent residency, whereas Portugal only allows Canadians Temporary residency. Canadian Citizenship is granted after 5 years.

The 882 Canadians should be treated with the same respect and given similar rights as the 166,000 Portuguese who have made the reverse journey.